STEM Reading List:Light and Optics

This list introduces readers to the concepts of light and optics. Books range from understanding how light works to project-based books. Perfect for educators looking for ideas to bring understanding of light and optics to the classroom!

	Explore Light and Optics By: Anita Yasuda Imagine a world without light. What would it be like? Dark, cold, and lifeless! In Explore Light and Optics, readers find out why light is so important to our world, how light travels, how the eye works, and why we can see objects. They read about optical inventions that changed the world, including microscopes, telescopes, and cameras. Kids are introduced to modern inventions such as lasers, solar planes, and the hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optics that make it possible to transmit data all over the world. Through projects ranging from making a spectroscope and concocting invisible ink to creating a periscope and experimenting with lenses, children discover how light can be bent, bounced, and broken. Facts, jokes, cartoon illustrations, and links to online primary sources illuminate the role light plays in our lives, from the sun shining overhead to the cellphone in our back pocket.
	Optical Engineering and the Science of Light By: Anne Rooney In this book, readers learn what optical engineering is, how light works, how engineers work with light, and how light and vision work together. It also includes the history of optical engineering, working in optical engineering, and starting a project with optics and light.
	Light Q & A By: Gina L. Hamilton Questions include: What is light? Why is light important? How do we use light? Is light a particle or a wave? How fast does light travel? What is invisible light? What is infrared light? What are lasers? What are absorption, reflection, and transmission? Why do some objects cast shadows? What are fiber optics? What are primary colors? What gives objects their colors? What is refraction? How do people see light? How do our eyes adjust to light? How does the eye see color? What are optical illusions? How do lenses help people see? What is LASIK? The book also highlights Light careers and shows young scientists at work.
	A Project Guide to Light and Optics By: Colleen D. Kessler Discusses lines of light, beautiful patterns, refracting light, separating colors of the spectrum, sunlight and plants, different light sources, and measuring the speed of light. Includes how to make a water bottle microscope.
	Experiments with Light and Color By: Tom Jackson Includes the following experiments: Two-way mirror, Make a rainbow, Fishbowl lens, Disappearing trick, Make a telescope, Trapped beam, Pinhole camera, Spectrometer, Making patterns, Sunset in a glass, and Separating colors.
	Sources of Light By: Louise Spilsbury This book looks at the different places light comes from, including natural and artificial sources. Discover the difference between a light source and a reflective object and how you can tell which is which. Look at our largest and most important light source – the Sun – and what happens when you take sunlight away. Explore light technology by finding out how we use lasers and fiber optics. And much more!